Category: Events

Memorial Celebration for Glenn Parker, 20th April 12pm-2pm

Bobbi Parker is holding a memorial celebration at the Community Hall at 12pm on April 20th to honour Glenn Parker who died recently at their home in Paluma.

Friends and relatives from Townsville and other parts of Australia will be attending, and Paluma residents are also invited to participate. There will be an open bar. You are invited to bring a plate of finger food.

Social drinks this Friday and a quick familiarization with the defibrillator

Don’t forget that this Friday evening (6-8pm) will be our second Social Drinks session at the Hall.

As an additional attraction to quicken your pulse (and before we get to the drinks nibbles and games), Wilfred will give a very brief (5min) talk on how to access and open up the defibrillator. See you there!

Easter Market Success

Record breaking crowds attended our Paluma Community Easter Market on Sunday.  Despite how the weather appeared as late as Friday night, the sun and Paluma blue skies put on a fabulous show and drew people from near and far to enjoy what our village market and community had to offer.  

The rain and clouds on the range Thursday afternoon did not bode well for Sunday.

There were a variety of stalls full of fresh local produce and preserves, plants, textile goods, Paluma souvenirs and Knick knacks. Loretta Brennan and her husband from Mutarnee had a table full of fresh goodies that were very popular.  Also, the lovely Kath who with Anne Briers, had an array of fascinating plants and produce as well as sweets and preserves that had people commenting.

Kath with her wares all displayed and ready for sale.
Loretta with her fresh produce and preserves stall.
‘Buddha’s fingers’ citrus – one of the fascinating fruits on Anne’s stall.

Bobbi’s beautiful mini moss gardens and painted saws were once again a big hit with some customers taking photos of her lovely work. The colourful textile stall, “Stitches…” (apologies for not remembering the full name) had some gorgeous items which were popular.  The stall holders themselves were very pleased with the market as they doubled their takings compared to the last market.

The PDCA had its own stalls with fresh local produce, souvenirs, baked goods and preserves as well as an Easter hamper raffle.  All of which were popular and sold well.  It can be confirmed that this market made over two thousand dollars for the PDCA as a result of the tremendous efforts of our community. 

The PDCA sincerely thanks all of those amazing PKRs! (Paluma Kitchen Rockstars!) who helped make this Easter Market such a success. And to all the ‘quiet achievers’ who organised, lifted, swept, washed, cleaned, cooked, made the tea and coffee, served the public, were accountable for the money… a heartfelt “thank you”.

Les ready for the hoards at the sausage sizzle.

Our next market will be on June 23rd, and if you would like to be part of it either volunteering or hosting your own stall, please contact Wilfred Karnoll or any other PDCA executive member.

The PDCA bake and preserves turned a record-breaking profit.

Easter Market Preparations

And some talk of cake…


Our Paluma Community Easter Market is just over a week away and will be held at the community hall on Sunday March 31st from 9am to 1pm.
This is a reminder that the hall will be open this Saturday, the 23rd from 10 – 11am for anyone wishing to register their availability to help out with a range of tasks such a community event entails.

Some of the jobs on the day are listed below if you would like to volunteer a half hour of your time to support a successful community market. Experienced volunteers will be there to explain the task if required.

Hall set up: from 8 – 9am

PDCA Stall Holders: on a roster from 9am – 1pm. Baked goods and preserves stall, produce and plants stall.

Sausage Sizzle set up (8:30am) and run: on roster from 9am – 1pm

Pack up and Clean up bbq, pagoda and hall: From 1 – 2pm.

This is also a reminder for the ‘Paluma Kitchen Rockstars’ baking for the PDCA baked goods stall. You can collect your ‘Paluma Produce’ stickers if you wish to use them, this Saturday from the hall between 10 and 11am. Please refer to the post: “Call-out to Paluma Bakers for the Easter Markets” for details on plating and labelling your baked goodies.

A Festive St Paddy’s Night

The St Paddy’s social on Saturday 16th was a cheerful gathering of 20 or so locals. Michele and Lynda had the hall decked out in the green and orange whilst lilting Irish melodies and jigs drifted amongst us. Many a cheeky leprechaun (some in full traditional outfits) happily enjoyed a glass or two of their favourite tipple before being called for dinner. The generous Irish-themed feast provided by those who attended was truly sumptuous and delicious.

Before the seriously delectable dessert table was officially opened for business, Michele bravely and competently stepped up into the role of quizmaster extraordinaire on all things Irish. Rules were explained, questionnaires distributed and suddenly there was a quiet lull (and a few moans and groans), whilst the leprechauns with their full bellies and glasses, wracked their brains for answers to questions spanning the fields of geography, literature, language, film, popular music and sheep… Irish sheep.

After a suitable period of time, and a checking of answers, the winner, Linda Venn, was discovered and awarded her prize of a free drink from the bar and an Irish-themed stubby cooler. Peter Cook was the luckiest leprechaun of the evening as he sat on the chair with a hidden reward of “pots of gold” scratchies. We all wish you luck, Peter! The evening went very smoothly with no small thanks to Lynda Radbone’s efficiency in the kitchen and behind the bar and Michele’s organisation.

The melodic brogue of our very own Irishman, Les Hyland was unfortunately missing from this evening – as was his Anamchara, (thank you google) the lovely Lynn. However, Michelle, Lynda and all those who attended did their best to honour the Irish camaraderie and sense of cheeky fun that Les and Lynn encouraged when they first began these St Paddy’s festivities. Now there’s a quiz question for you: When was the first St Paddy’s night at the Paluma Community Hall?


Text and photos: J. Poletto

Easter Market Preparations

To All Our Quiet Achievers aka Volunteers

Our Paluma Community Easter Market is on Sunday March 31st from 9am to 1pm. There are a range of tasks that need some ‘quiet achievers’ to help with to ensure a successful market. You will be working alongside some of our more well known ‘quiet achievers’ (ok, maybe they’re not always quiet, but there’s the fun in it) who will be more than happy to guide you in whatever’s required… in case you’re new and want to help. All are welcome to come and be part of this community event and give a hand, even if it’s for a 1/2 hour (which would be brilliant!).

If you are interested in doing some volunteering, below are a list of jobs that need support. If there is a name beside them, that means they are managing that task and absolutely still need some help.

Easter Market Job List

This list will be on a signup sheet displayed at the hall on Saturday evening at the St Paddy’s day gathering. It will also be available for signup on Saturday 23rd at the hall at 10am or see/email Wilfred or Juanita and let them know what you can do to help.

Day before:

  • Slice onions for BBQ: This is a good one for those with food processors (and goggles!). Onions, Large plastic bags and/or plastic containers will be provided. Juanita only has a small processor but has a big fridge to store the sliced onions. More helpers welcome.

On the day:

  • Hall set up: (from 8-9am) organise tables for stall holders; coffee/tea set up – Wilfred and 4 others … as many as is free
  • PDCA stall holders for: (roster from 9am – 1pm) bake stall and produce stall – Wilfred, Juanita and 2 others.
  • Sausage sizzle set up and run: (set up 8:30am) tables, bbq, utensils, serviettes, oil, sauces, etc., Eski. Cook- ‘The Don’ (tbc); Money Man – Les; need people to serve the customers and to make up our deluxe sausage sizzle hot dogs. 3 volunteers to allow a roster to give everyone a break.
  • Pack up and clean up: (starting at 1pm) bbq pagoda and hall – as many volunteers as possible.

St. Patricks Social this Saturday Night

The Paluma Community will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this Saturday evening 16th March at the Community Hall. Everyone is welcome to attend and if you feel inclined, please wear your best ’emerald outfit’ to mark the occasion.

Please bring a plate of food to share with your friends and neighbours. Drinks will be available at the Bar on the night including that most Irish of beverages, Guinness. Start time is 6.30 pm.

As everyone knows, the Hylands have hosted this event over many years and have always produced a challenging Irish Quiz to test our knowledge of all things Irish. This year the quiz master will be Michele Bird – who certainly has some big shoes to fill in replacing Leslie Hyland in this role! Start doing your research in preparation for what promises to be a mind numbing, brain twisting, cranium crushing test of Irish Intellect. The winner will score a free beverage of their choice from the Bar, in addition to the admiration, respect and envy of their fellow quiz persons.

Don’t spend your Saturday night “on ya tod”, join in the fun and come along for a good old Irish chin wag and perhaps even an Irish jig with your Paluma pals. See you at the Hall.

Call-Out to Paluma Bakers for the Easter Market

The Paluma Community Easter Market is fast approaching on Sunday March 31st.  This is a call-out for Paluma’s Kitchen Rockstars to make, shake and bake home made goodies to sell for our community’s (PDCA) fund raising.

If you are interested in doing some baking and donating your goods for sale at the Easter Market then please read on…..

Here’s what to do:-

  1. Please divide your baked goods into small batches for sale. We suggest batches of 2, 4 or 6 individual pieces as this has worked well at previous markets.
  2. Please add a sticker or other suitable label outlining the contents of your baked goods. You will need to add this label to EVERY individual batch of goods. This is required for health & safety reasons. “Paluma Produce” stickers will be available for this purpose if you wish to use them. Pick up from Anneshka Brown at your and her convenience or from the hall on Saturday 23rd between 10 and 11am. See image at end of this post.
  3. Please plate the goods (in batches) and secure with glad wrap or suitable packaging. (We have previously used paper plates and glad wrap and this works well).
  4. Please add a price sticker to your goods, with what you think is a fair and reasonable price for your baked delights. We can provide price stickers as well.
  5. Please deliver your goods to the Community Hall on Sunday morning 31st March at 8.30 AM (for a 9 am market start).
  6. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!😊

If you have any questions or need any further information, please contact Juanita Poletto by email: jpoletto@gmail.com or phone 0410202968. Some of our other lovely PDCA executive members Anneshka Brown, Jill Meads, Wilfred Karnoll and Jamie Oliver (he just might bust out his famous chocolate brownie recipe) should also be able to answer any questions you may have.

Previous cake stalls have been a roaring success, so please contribute if you can for the upcoming Easter Market. All donations are much appreciated

Image of the “Paluma Produce” sticker you can label your goods with if you wish. Designed by Anneshka